[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 19, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H6517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                    MEDICARE VERSUS PERSONNEL FILES

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, this is the month of June, but 
I do not know, some of us may be thinking it is Halloween. The reason 
is because it seems that the Republicans want to play around with the 
ghost of the personnel files in the White House. Already the White 
House has indicated that there was no wrong intended. They have got a 
new director. The special prosecutor Kenneth Starr says there is 
nothing to investigate or prosecute. But all we can hear is about the 
ghost of the personnel files. The reason is because they do not want to 
talk to us about the Medicare cuts. There is a $1,000 increase with the 
Republican plan on seniors by the year 2002.
  Listen, America, forcing hospitals to close, already hospitals have 
closed in neighborhoods in New York and they are closing in rural 
communities across the Nation because of the cuts in Medicare. What 
Americans need most is good health care. For our seniors in particular, 
we need hospitals open and with lower cost. Yes; rather than trying to 
fix the Medicare trust fund with reasonable responses and cuts in abuse 
and fraud, the Republicans want to get a large cut so that they can 
give tax cuts to the wealthy.
  Stop with the ghost of Halloween and let us put a good Medicare plan 
on the table and provide health care for seniors and Americans across 
the Nation.

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